You Owled Me!
by MAB49
Summary: Second story of my Mag 7HP xover.  This time, Maude's involved.


Originally poseted on an Ezra Standish List (gotta love that gambler). Once again, I made some changes (but not to the overall story). Disclaimers: I do not own Magnificant Seven (CBS does), the Harry Potter universe (J.K. Rowling does) or Lenny (yes, he's mentioned here again, and Bernadette owns him). As stated before I have nothing to give except debts so please do not sue me. Spoilers: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a bit-time spoiler.

Takes place after "In Memory of a Friend"

You Owled Me!

It was early afternoon when Maude Standish whirled into the offices of Team Seven. She went straight to her son's desk and upon finding it empty went to the office of Chris Larabee. Without knocking, she swung the door open, finding the team leader on the phone. He gave the Southern woman a hard glare before ending the conversation. "What?"

Instead of hearing the expected admonishment, he instead heard, "Where's my son?"

This took Chris aback. "What?"

"Where is Ezra? Where is my son?" she demanded, seeming upset and worried.

"Is something wrong, Maude?" asked Josiah as he came up.

"Yes...No...I don't know! Please, Mr. Sanchez, do you know where my son is?"

"If it's serious..."

Maude shook her head. "I just need to talk with him about...something."

"Is Ez okay, Ma'am?" came a soft Texan drawl. He traded looks with Chris. The team had been worried about their undercover agent ever since he had received word of his friend's death. He had become more quiet, thoughtful, pensive. They were arguing over whether or not to call Lenny and demand that he come down from Atlanta and do something. And during a conversation about natural remedies, Nathan had found that the Southerner had possessed a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Upon being asked how he knew so much, he just answered, "It was the subject of a test in secondary school."

"I suppose he is, Mr. Tanner. Though I may suggest that he get his head examined," she muttered.

Upon hearing this, Vin's eyebrows went straight up. "Ma'am?"

"Family matter, Mr. Tanner. This is a family matter. Nothing to concern yourself about." Maude, now near Ezra's desk, ran her hand along the edge of it.

"Does this have anything to do with why Ez has been acting strangely?" JD asked.

Maude turned to the computer expert. "How so?"

"Ever since he heard about his friend's death, he's been quieter than usual and there are some weekends when he'll disappear and just say that he went to visit some friends out of town. But I didn't think that he had any friends in Colorado outside of Denver--besides Lenny, that is."

Maude took this in as she walked. "Did he say who died?"

"Yeah, Sirius. Sirius Padfoot."

Maude went a tad pale at this. "Sirius is...dead?" She turned and went towards the nearest window and stared out of it. "Did he say how?"

"According to Ezra, he died saving his godson," Josiah answered.

Maude went poker-faced. "Did my son say exactly how Sirius died, how he was killed?"

Chris shook his head. "No. He wouldn't answer us that."

"I see." Maude paused. "While I realise that I have asked this before, no one was kind enough to answer. Now, does anyone know where my son is?"

The six team-members just looked at each other. "He had to see someone about a case that we're working on. He should be back soon."

"Actually, Mr. Larabee, I have arrived. Good afternoon, Mother, I ascertain that you are well." Maude turned from the window. Though she was wearing her poker-face, Ezra saw that she was upset. "Mr. Larabee, I will give you my findings in an hour. Mother?" Maude joined her son and the two left for the elevator. Only when they were gone did they relax a bit.

"God, even Maude knows what's wrong and she just got here!" Buck ground out.

"I know. Geez! I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm this close from calling Lenny," Chris announced hold his index finger and thumb less a few centimetres apart.

"Is something the matter, Mother" queried Ezra as the elevators doors closed.

Maude turned to her son. "You Owled me!"

Ezra nodded in agreement. "I then assume that Eustache made it safely to your abode?"

"That is your owl's name?" Upon seeing another nod she continued, "Then yes, Eustache made it safely. But Ezra, you owled me. What is the meaning of this? Why did you get an owl?"

Ezra gave an uncharacteristic shrug. "Marctiquet has been deceased for quite some time now, Mother. It was time to get a new owl."

"Does this have anything to do with Sirius' death?" she asked, her voice a bit smaller than it's usual robust.

Ezra stiffened at this. "How did you find out about that?"

"Your colleagues," was the answer. "They are worried about you. Is there a need to be?"

"No, of course not, Mother. Why would there be?"

"Ezra, I realise that I may be a Muggle, but I understand almost everything. I lived in that world for many years before your father's death and I know that Sirius had been a friend from Hogwart's. Does this has anything to do with Sirius' death?"

Ezra stared at the floor. "You-Know-Who is back."

Maude blanched at this. "No. No. He's dead. He's dead," she vehemently denied.

The wizard gave a small smile. "No, he's not. He has come back. Despite how much we wish to deny this, it is ultimately the truth."

"You're not going back!"

"Not unless the Order needs me," Ezra agreed.

"Not even if the Order needs you!" Maude retorted. "There is a reason why I left that world after Deatheaters killed your father! I did not want you raised there! I wanted you to be safe!"

"Do I detect a small amount of concern in your voice, Mother?" Ezra chided. Maude balled her hands into fists as the elevators doors opened. She exited the lift and went for the main doors leading to the outdoors. Ezra quickly followed her. "Mother?" he asked as they left the building.

"We will continue this conversation while we walk to the nearest park. After all, how many wizards and witches in Denver are there?"

"You would be surprised," came the answer.

Maude ignored this. "Ezra, despite what you think, with me leaving you with friends and relatives, I love you very much. I wanted you to be with me, but you could not. I also wanted to protect you from Deatheaters. That is the reason why we left England to come home."

"But England was home."

"Ezra, I realise that you are half-English, but you are also half-American. And here we could be safe. Well, at least safe as could be." Her son remained silent. "Ezra, your father was an Auror, and an extremely good one at that. But not even as good as he was, as knowledgeable as he was or as powerful as he was, not even he could escape death. You have that same power. You too, have the opportunity to become an Auror, and do not think for one second that I did not hear of the offer that was made to you after your graduation, because I do."

"Dumbledore has offered to recommend me as an Auror," Ezra announced.

Maude swallowed, now worried. She knew how much her son had loved and idolised his father. "Will you take it?"

Ezra smiled as he grasped her hand. "As I had stated previously, not until the Order needs me. And it is not at this time."

Maude nodded, exhaling her relief. "What will you tell your colleagues? I have no idea why, but I feel as though I must warn you that they are curious. And I am afraid that my earlier actions will increase that curiousity."

Ezra let go of his mother's hand as they neared a park. "What do you mean?"

Maude shrugged. "Well..." At her son's glance, she sighed. "I went in there demanding to know where you were, being a tad short-tempered. And I ignored Mr. Larabee's ill-mannered 'What?!?" while making that demand."

Ezra wrinkled his eyebrows in thought. "I will think up of something to explain that oversight."

"So, you have no intentions of joining the Order in the near future." Silence. "Ezra!"

The wizard found a park bench to sit down on and did so. "I'm afraid that I will have to dispel your notion of not joining the Order in the near future, for I have already joined. However, I will not be on active duty until the time arrives for me to do so," he explained as his muggle mother joined him on the bench.

Maude Standish gazed at the children playing in the playground. She remembered her late-husband's--her first husband's--explanation for joining the Auror's. They had been in a park, watching their son and his friends play. "Look at them, Maude. Look at them play, seemingly care-free without a worry in their minds. They know that Deatheaters are about. They know that You-Know-Who is out there killing those who oppose him. I look at them and no matter how much I don't want to, I see those children out there with our son as future victims of You-Know-Who. I have to become a part of the force that tries to stop him. If I don't become a part of the solution, I will only add to part of the problem--because the problem is that not enough people are willing to show their lot against him! I have to try. I have to try for me, for you...but most of all for our son. Maude, I want him to continue to grow up care-free, without a worry in his mind. I want him to grow up being safe. I need to do this for him." Maude blinked back tears remembering this. Unfortunately, her dear husband had been killed while battling Deatheaters. Unfortunately his wish of having their son grow up worry-free had not happened. He had experienced the pain felt in not only having his father killed, but also that of several friends, his paternal uncle and aunt, and his grandparents. He was the last of the Standish's. He had a legacy to continue. Albeit not as grand or rich as the Potter's or Malfoy's, but comfortable all the same. But most of all, she did not want to lose her last link to her beloved Patrick. "Ezra..."

"I will do my best to not have an early demise, as I believe that it is not my time, Mother. I promise you that."

Maude smiled. "Yes, you did get exceptional marks in Divination." She looked at her son. "Ezra, please do not go back there. I do not want you to face the same fate as your father."

"Mother, if we do not stop him, how do you expect muggles to? Remember, they do not have the same abilities as we do, to try and protect themselves." Ezra shrugged. "Besides if we fail, there will be no stopping him. His last defeat was a fluke, Mother. This time, it is more dangerous, the stakes are higher, and we are once again at war. I do not wish for this to be so. I do not want this to happen and I do not wish to partake in it. But if I am called, I will answer and join my fellow wizards. I have to. I cannot stand by and do nothing."

Maude gave a small smile. "You my son, are so much like your father, in so many ways. Despite my not showing you, please do realise that my love and affection for you. And that I am admitting this out loud in hopes that you will do the proper action and not join!"

"Mother..."

"But, if on the outside chance that you are called--and that, god fobid, you answer that call... Know that I love you and am proud of you. And I think that we need our heads examined."

Ezra cocked his head. "May I inquire as to why you have come up to that conclusion?"

"For you, it is because you feel the need to join a group that is willingly entering and participating in a war; and for myself because I am opening up myself to you amongst strangers."

"I think that it is because of you opening up to me, period."

"Well, perhaps that as well," Maude admitted.

The two sat on the bench for a while, enjoying the quiet, thinking, and keeping their thoughts from overwhelming them. Finally Ezra stood up. "I am afraid, Mother, that it is time for me to depart. I have a report that I must finish and an excuse to come up with." He held out his hand to his mother and helped her up as a true gentleman would.

"How about not coming up with one, and have them just continually inquiring of my behaviour?" Maude suggested.

"Because I would like to get some work done eventually," was the answer. "That and the fact that I do not wish for my abode to suddenly acquire a 'pest' problem."

"Well, I must admit that I have always thought of your colleagues as such."

"Bugs, Mother," Ezra corrected. "Listening devices. Already I scan my home every night in fear that they have done so."

Maude smiled. "Well that is because you have not done your best to cover up the fact that there is a problem, Son." Ezra smiled and shook his head. His mother would not change and he did not know which feeling that he should possess on this. "Ezra," Maude began as they neared the Federal Building, "If you do answer the call, how would you keep in touch?"

"By Owl-Post, of course," Ezra replied.

"But what if I felt the need to contact you first? How would I go about that?" They stood near the front doors, not completely close to them or of the people going in and out, but also not completely away from them, either.

"Have no fear of that, Mother," Ezra said. He leaned in towards her. "I would give you an Owl."

Maude was taken aback by this, as her son walked to his workplace. "Oh Lord, how would I ever explain that to my Marks?"


End file.
